A Tale of Two Akatsuki
by Le Ginamal
Summary: An Itachi/Kisame fic with the rest of the Akatsuki mentioned. Mainly Kisame for most of the story, potentially some drabble. Basically a developmental story of these two and their "relationship" with eachother. Reviews welcome. Rated T, for now. :
1. Prelude

_Hi, all! This is my first ever fic. I hope you enjoy. This short piece is just the prelude and I should be uploading the first chapter nearly immediatly. I'll let you think about who's saying all this in the beginning-I don't even know yet! Though I do have an inkling as to who it might be. Constructive critisism is welcome, enjoy!_

* * *

What was this pain? It was different than any other pain he had ever felt. What had happened in his dreams to make his chest ache like this? What kind of hurt could threaten to tear him apart, shorten his breath, and close his eyes so tight they watered? What was it, this tightness creeping into his throat, needing to be freed?


	2. Naptime

_**Chp 1—Ita pov**_

Itachi walked along the main hallway of the Akatsuki lair. He traipsed out of the dank cave hideout, out into the open air of the thick deciduous forest. He needed to cool down and get out of the "crowded" hell-hole before the morning rush for breakfast. A morning walk would do just the trick.

The early birds chirped in the early spring crispness, serenading Itachi as he wandered. Devoid of cloak, he only wore his favorite pajama pants and a knit sweater. Being from the land of fire, Itachi liked it warm. Unfortunately for him, genetics had not been kind and had branded him with perpetual coldness, a fact he despised, though he wouldn't let the others know.

Itachi soon found a patch of forest floor, lightly bathed in sunlight, covered in soft grass. He sat down to rest, leaning against a nearby tree. Perhaps he wouldn't go back for breakfast—perhaps he'd just stay here the whole morning and go back in the afternoon without anyone knowing. 'Then I'll grab some lunch,' Itachi thought, 'and escape before being press-ganged into any of Sasori and Deidara's stupid games.' Pein and Konan were gone, anyway, so it wasn't like there were going to be any missions. He could stay out here for the entire week if he wanted! He thought he might just do that.

He didn't remember closing his eyes for a short nap, but when everything turned pastel-colored, he figured he might as well sleep it off.


	3. Apples Galore

_The chapters are pretty short so far, but I'll try to make them longer. I try to stop at good stopping points... I've really changed Itachi's personality from my written version. He was so OOC it bothered me, so now he's much more in character. I don't know what anyone'll think about Kisame though... And everyone has their own room in my story. And Tobi's still all rediculously silly, I don't know if I'm gonna have him be Madara yet._

_I forgot to do this earlier, ahem, I don't own Naruto. If I did, lots of people wouldn't have died and Orochimaru would have gotten his ass kicked a lot sooner. He bugs the crap outta me._

_**Kisa-Pov**_

"_Kisame! Tell us where your effeminate, creative less partner is! We wanna play Apples to Apples! We know you're hiding him in here somewhere. Where is he?"_

Kisame woke up from one of the oddest dreams. He had been having a lot of those lately and had decided that it was probably something in the water. He got dressed, sans cloak, and went to the kitchen, leaving his room in a state—unmade bed, clothes on the floor.

He yawned as he went through the doorway. "Hey, have you seen Itachi, Deidara?" Kisame asked, noting his partner's absence from the kitchen. Itachi was always up before him, and Kisame had never known his small companion to ever get sick, so he took it in stride, only asking the feminine artist out of curiosity.

"Nope, not a sign of him, hmm," Deidara replied, "but we should play Apples to Apples when he gets back."

Kisame choked on his Cheerios. "What is it with that game? I dreamed about it."

"Really, un? How'd it go? Hmm?"

"What, my dream?" Deidara nodded, "Hidan was just shouting at me for hiding Itachi so he couldn't play the game with you guys."

"Did you really hide Itachi, un?" Deidara was intrigued.

"No, but he hid himself in my room," 'Amazing what you know in dreams,' Kisame thought.

"I wonder if it means anything, yeah?" Deidara said.

"Psh, I doubt it. Bunch of nonsense," Kisame put no stock in silly things like dream readings and horoscopes. It was all just a bunch of phooey to fool fools into giving con-artists money.

Kisame and Deidara munched on their cereals in silence, until Tobi burst in the door a minute later, fully cloaked as always. The other Akatsuki joked about Tobi sleeping in his cloak he took the rule of "wear your cloak always" so seriously. Zetsu would divulge nothing on the subject, although he often chuckled when the topic came up.

"Hey, Deidara-san! Can we play the apples-game-that-has-no-apples later?" Tobi said excitedly.

Kisame rolled his eyes. "We'll play when Itachi gets back, yeah," Deidara replied.

"YAY! Hey, where is Itachi-san?" Tobi looked about, asking Kisame, who shrugged.

"Hmm, I wonder where Zetsu-senpai is…" Tobi proceeded to sing a one-worded song about apples as he waltzed out of the kitchen.

Kisame decided to go for a walk after breakfast to avoid going stir crazy; or ripping Tobi to bits. He allowed his feet to wander along the edge of a nearby creek until it turned away and Kisame kept walking forward. He wandered about the forested wilderness; he loved the clean air among the trees. It was almost like swimming in oxygen.

As he walked, he thought about the past and how different life was now. He didn't know if he would be able to choose if given a choice of the two. Certainly he was freer in the Akatsuki, allowed to pursue missions in whatever way he chose. It didn't matter his methods, as long as they got the job done. But he didn't know if he exactly liked that. Giving in to animalistic instincts wasn't something Kisame liked to do—he had struggled with that nature for his whole life.

He reflected that relationships were certainly much easier in the Mist Village. One wasn't expected to be brutish all the time, so showing the kinder side of one's personality was normal, accepted. In the Akatsuki that was weakness. Truth be told, Kisame was becoming a bit sick of putting out the hard-bitten criminal scum façade out there so much. He wanted to relax, chill out, and just be peaceful and happy again for once.

This also brought up the matter of time. He was getting older, and in the Shinobi profession time was everything. Today might be the last. Kisame found he was vaguely concerned about "his time" running out and no longer having the ability to satisfy someone else in a relationship. Of course he couldn't really talk to anyone about these things—he figured the others didn't care about people at all. And after all, it was pretty obvious that Dei and Sasori were pretty close, as well as Hidan and Kakuzu.

He sighed, tired of thinking of depressing things, and tried to meditate as he walked. He turned ninety degrees so he would walk parallel of the hideout, already being quite far away where he was. He came to a small patch of fir trees, a clean pine smell permeating the air as he crunched dried leaves under his feet.

He came upon a small clearing and spotted a bit of purple fabric. He assumed the fabric covered a leg, as a sandaled foot came out of the fabric. The rest of the body was hidden behind some bushes.

Kisame walked forward, tentatively, and saw that the purple fabric was a pair of pajama pants, that lead upward to an olive green sweater. Raven hair flowed over the ground where the top of the sweater was. By the hint of the face, Kisame realized that this was Itachi, taking a nap. This puzzled Kisame, so he woke his partner up.

He knelt and nudged Itachi's shoulder. "Hey, Itachi, wake up."

Itachi stirred and opened an eye, looking at Kisame, "Hm?" he grunted.

"Why were you napping in the woods?" Kisame asked.

"To get away," Itachi answered shortly, getting up and stretching like a cat.

"I dig," Kisame replied. They were now walking back together to the hide out. The way back was silent. Kisame thought of nothing beyond the pleasantness of the forest. Itachi didn't even bother to contemplate what Kisame was doing out in the forest, or why he hadn't pestered him. But it wasn't really like Kisame to pester, he was just impatient sometimes. Otherwise Kisame tended to be pretty understanding. Itachi simply dismissed the incident altogether.


End file.
